SPC: Fast and Efficient Scalable Predictive Coding of Animated Meshes

Animated meshes are often represented by a sequence of static meshes with constant connectivity. Due to their frame-based representation they usually occupy a vast amount of bandwidth or disk space. We present a fast and efficient scalable predictive coding (SPC) scheme for frame-based representations of animated meshes. SPC decomposes animated meshes in spatial and temporal layers which are efficiently encoded in one pass through the animation. Coding is performed in a streamable and scalable fashion. Dependencies between neighbouring spatial and temporal layers are predictively exploited using the already encoded spatio-temporal neighbourhood. Prediction is performed in the space of rotation-invariant coordinates compensating local rigid motion. SPC supports spatial and temporal scalability, and it enables efficient compression as well as fast encoding and decoding. Parts of SPC were adopted in the MPEG-4 FAMC standard. However, SPC significantly outperforms the streaming mode of FAMC with coding gains of over 33%, while in comparison to the scalable FAMC, SPC achieves coding gains of up to 15%. SPC has the additional advantage over FAMC of achieving real-time encoding and decoding rates while having only low memory requirements. Compared to some other non-scalable state-of-the-art approaches, SPC shows superior compression performance with gains of over 16% in bit-rate.     

Authorship verification applied to detection of compromised accounts on online social networks

Compromising legitimate accounts has been the most used strategy to spread malicious content on OSN (Online Social Network). To address this problem, we propose a pure text mining approach to check if an account has been compromised based on its posts content. In the first step, the proposed approach extracts the writing style from the user account. The second step comprehends the k-Nearest Neighbors algorithm (k-NN) to evaluate the post content and identify the user. Finally, Baseline Updating (third step) consists of a continuous updating of the user baseline to support the current trends and seasonality issues of user’s posts. Experiments were carried out using a dataset from Twitter composed by tweets of 1000 users. All the three steps were individually evaluated, and the results show that the developed method is stable and can detect the compromised accounts. An important observation is the Baseline Updating contribution, which leads to an enhancement of accuracy superior of 60 %. Regarding average accuracy, the developed method achieved results over 93 %.     

On aspectualizing component models

Server‐side component models such as Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) add powerful abstractions to the bare ‘business objects’ layer in order to support a clean separation of server‐side application logic from other concerns such as distribution, security, transaction management and persistence. An improved separation of concerns is also the main goal of aspect‐oriented programming (AOP). This paper compares the two approaches and reasons about the possibility of substituting (parts of) component models using AOP mechanisms. We conclude that AOP is a promising approach to eliminate important shortcomings of the container‐based component approach. However, our analysis of concrete aspect‐oriented languages shows that current AOP technology is not yet mature enough to supersede component models. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychological predictors of college students’ cell phone use while driving

Despite the known risk, many people talk on a phone while driving. This study explored psychological predictors of cell phone use while driving. College students (final N = 69) completed a survey and predicted their driving performance both with and without a simultaneous phone conversation. Their actual performance on a driving simulator was then assessed. Cell phone use reduced performance on the simulation task. Further, perceiving oneself as good at compensating for driving distractions, overestimating one's performance on the driving simulator, and high illusory control predicted more frequent cell phone use while driving in everyday life. Finally, those who talked more frequently on a phone while driving had poorer real-world driving records. These findings suggest illusory control and positive illusions partly explain driver's decisions of whether to use cell phones while driving.     

Polarization-stable oxide-confined VCSELs with enhanced single-mode output power via monolithically integrated inverted grating reliefs

It has been proven experimentally that the single-mode output power of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) can be increased significantly with an inverted surface relief and that a reliable polarization control can be achieved by a monolithically integrated surface grating for even highly multimode VCSELs. In this paper, for the first time we report on a combination of these two techniques, namely, an inverted grating relief to realize VCSELs with a stable polarization and an increased single-mode output power. A statistically relevant number of monolithic, oxide-confined 850-nm VCSELs is investigated. All devices with a grating relief have a stable polarization with its orientation defined by the grating grooves. On the other hand, 64% of the reference devices exhibit polarization switches. Concurrently, the maximum single-mode output power is enhanced by more than a factor of three. Within the entire range of implemented grating parameters, the worst grating relief device still delivers higher single-mode output power than the best reference device.     

Reliable polarization control of VCSELs through monolithically integrated surface gratings: a comparative theoretical and experimental study

Vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with a well-defined and predictable polarization of the emitted light are sought for a number of applications. In this paper, we show that one can define and stabilize the polarization of single- and multimode oxide-confined VCSELs with a monolithically integrated dielectric surface grating. In recent years, we have developed a three-dimensional, fully vectorial model for VCSELs, which proved to nicely reproduce the experimental results of quite complex structures, such as noncircular devices and phase-coupled VCSEL arrays. This software allows for the first time to analyze the effects of a dielectric grating in the output facet cap layer and its capability to fix the polarization of the emitted light. It is here employed as a design tool, yielding excellent agreement with the experimental data. Since the simulations predict the polarization behavior to be sensitively dependent on the grating parameters, hundreds of VCSELs with 99 different parameter sets, two grating orientations and active diameters of 4 and 7 /spl mu/m have been analyzed. Even VCSELs with eight or more coexisting modes turned out to be linearly polarized with an orthogonal polarization suppression ratio in excess of 15 dB. Theoretical and experimental emission far-fields are compared, and it is shown that diffraction side lobes can be prevented with properly chosen grating parameters which simultaneously ensure full polarization stability.     

Impact of reference datasets and autocorrelation on classification accuracy

Reference data and accuracy assessments via error matrices build the foundation for measuring success of classifications. An error matrix is often based on the traditional holdout method that utilizes only one training/test dataset. If the training/test dataset does not fully represent the variability in a population, accuracy may be over – or under – estimated. Furthermore, reference data may be flawed by spatial errors or autocorrelation that may lead to overoptimistic results. For a forest study we first corrected spatially erroneous ground data and then used aerial photography to sample additional reference data around the field-sampled plots (Mannel et al. 2006 Mannel, S., Hua, D. and Price, M. 2006. A method to obtain large quantities of reference data. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 27: 623–627. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). These reference data were used to classify forest cover and subsequently determine classification success. Cross-validation randomly separates datasets into several training/test sets and is well documented to perform a more precise accuracy measure than the traditional holdout method. However, random cross-validation of autocorrelated data may overestimate accuracy, which in our case was between 5% and 8% for a 90% confidence interval. In addition, we observed accuracies differing by up to 35% for different land cover classes depending on which training/test datasets were used. The observed discrepancies illustrate the need for paying attention to autocorrelation and utilizing more than one permanent training/test dataset, for example, through a k-fold holdout method.¹     

Sexuality in head and neck cancer patients

We describe a patient with Hirschsprung disease and autism. High-resolution karyotyping indicated that the patient has an interstitial deletion of 20p11.22-p11.23. Microsatellite analysis showed a deletion involving a 5-6 cM region from the maternally derived chromosome 20. The deleted region is proximal to, and does not overlap, the recently characterized Alagille syndrome region. This region of 20p has not yet been implicated in Hirschsprung disease or autism. However, this region contains several genes that could plausibly contribute to any phenotype that includes abnormal neural development.     

A comparison of the performance of lightweight glass containers manufactured by the P&B and B&B processes

The mechanical performance of lightweight glass packages produced by the NNPB (narrow neck press and blow) process was evaluated by comparison with the same glass packages (regular weight) produced by the conventional process (blow and blow). The temper number (annealing process evaluation), thickness distribution behaviour and mechanical performance (impact, vertical load and thermal shock strength) were analysed before and after line simulation, applied in optimized conditions in the laboratory. The performance of lightweight glass packages under transport simulation (truck envelope) in relation to the regular weight bottles was also evaluated. Both bottles presented residual stress values within the specified limits. The lightweight glass bottles had a more homogenous thickness distribution in comparison with the regular weight bottles and a better performance (about 33% improvement) in relation to the impact strength, especially in the heel, even when evaluated after line simulation. As to the vertical load strength, the lightweight glass bottle also indicated a superior performance to the regular weight bottle, both before and after line simulation. Both bottles withstood the temperature difference of 42°C that such packages are supposed to resist according to thermal shock specification. Due to the better thickness distribution of lightweight glass packages, they withstood a maximum temperature difference (progressive thermal shock) of 5–10°C higher than the regular weight bottles. No restrictions of the lightweight glass packages submitted to the transport simulation were found. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gezielte Manipulation von Mikropartikeln in einem Plasma. Manipulation of micro‐disperse particles in a process plasma

An optimal treatment (surface modification, coating) of micro‐disperse materials (powder, granulate, fibres etc.) by a process plasma requires the understanding of plasma‐particle interaction. For this purpose, related experimental investigations in a novel set‐up PULVA‐INP will be presented.